An Analysis of Orthopedic Surgical Services Provided to Syrian Refugees in a Health Center Away from the Syria District

Background: The Arab Spring, a wave of demonstrations and protests that hadtaken place in the Arab world since December 18, 2010, had also affected Syria. Thenumber of Syrian refugees who have migrated to Turkey is over 3.5 million.Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate the demography, clinical featuresand invoice amounts of Syrian refugee patients who were operated in an orthopedicand traumatology clinic of a healthcare institution far from the Syria district region.Materials and Methods: For this purpose, 329 Syrian patients who underwentsurgery in the field of orthopedics and Traumatology between June 2011 and 2018were enrolled in the study. The records of Syrian refugees have been retrospectivelyexamined.Results: Male applicants (76.3%) were more than females (23.7%).%). It was observedthat the highest number of applications were in the field of microsurgery (21.3%),followed by trauma (20.7%) and pediatric orthopedics (14.6%), respectively. Includingthe non-emergency trauma patients, 90% of the patients underwent elective surgerieswhile 10% underwent emergency surgeries. It was determined that the average invoiceamount was 4987 TL (min: 207 TL, max: 87541 TL) and the highest cost was in thefield of vertebral surgery (average 19384 TL). The rate of emergency applications hasshown a significant increase in 2016 and later (2016-2017-2018) compared to 2015 andbefore .Conclusion : The main Syrian refugees patient profile of the health centers far fromthe war zone is composed of elective cases and their costs.Key words: Health Services Accessibility–Hospital Costs–Orthopedic Procedures–Refugees–Syria